The only thing that stops the dust is the rain. It’s a sweet reprieve, but there is no middle ground. The land is either as dry as the Betty Ford clinic, or as wet as the ocean floor. Everything can be seen from the ridge overlooking Armadillo as John Marston gently bounces along atop...

With all the commotion and confrontation in the past 2 weeks over Left Behind and Zelda, I figured, why not give this PC game a whirl, and see what it really is like?

Well...its a bad game, period.

Quite frankly, I don't understand why some people are arguing the CONDUCT of the review. The entire thing was from the point of view of someone who was more or less impartial to the religion in question. I was raised a Catholic, I am a deist at heart, and I personally see no reason for the complaints behind a game, which is obviously in itself its own hypocracy, kind of like other people out there who preach their "religious agendas" and fail to recognize their own hypocrasy. What Duke did was his own take on the religious implications on the game, and as an apparent athiest, he did so based on his views of the religion himself.

But were not here to discuss that, were here to review a game, which seems like the whole point that is missing from the entire argument, this is an obviously flawed game.

Graphics-

Graphicly the game does not look good at all. The sprites are kind of blocky and all look the same, and the enviorments, while modeled after my home of New York, are real limited and bland. Nothing specail or redeeming here.

Final Score- D

Gameplay-

When the game didn't crash on me, which occured frequently, I was somewhat memorized by the obvious flaws. First off, any strategy in the game was thrown out, as they made it to damn hard to not only micro-manage units that are created, but also even harder to keep them ALIVE, which is important to the storyline.

Speaking of that, I know little of the books, and the storyline here made little sense to me to begin with. Something about the faithful among us going to heaven, while those who are deemed unfaithful are here to face off on judgement day. What I found odd is WHO was left here, ordinary people like him and her have to rough it out, because they are "not good christians."

This is the major problem, as you don't have to be a christian to be good. I think, in Duke's defense, this was the argument he attempted to give us all, and while most took it as a personal attack against Christianity, in reality the game itself should be attacked for this. This turns it into a neat idea of armageddon into a nothing but a religious rant essentially, attempting to portray an agenda of their own.

Despite that, the RTS elements of the game are essentially broken, if not standard anyway. You build structures, in this case churches and halls, etc. But preaching and singing to people, some of which are of different faiths or probably are like me, agnostics or athiests, is more or less an infringement of the right to practice their own religion.

In the end, the gameplay is not only flawed by a technical standpoint, but a social one as well. I personally would not want to play a game that has me attempting to convert people and force them out of their free will, it seem's to evil to me.

Final Score- F

Sound-

The game actually has decent sound. The voice overs are ok, if not repetitive and kind of one sided, and the Christian Rock is exactly that, but it's good Chrsitan Rock. The sound effects, on the other hand, are not that impressive. If the game had any redeeming qualities, it is the soundtrack.

Final Score- C

Overall Score-

If Jesus was alive today, I think he would have a comment on how this game is not preaching the right messages, but is instead preaching the wrong agendas by the fundamentalists of the Christian Faith. Despite the obvious biasness of the game, as opposed to the other religions it has, it is not a good game to begin with, so it is safe to say that it is unlikely anyone will buy this PC game anytime soon. Even fans of the book series it's based upon would have trouble digesting this game, as it is fustratingly hard, ugly to look at, and crashes to much even on high end computers.

And let this be known to the hate mail I will recieve, I am looking at this in as much of an unbiased review as possible. Am I perfect, by all means no. But, it is clear that the issues presented in Dukes review are the opinions of one person, who despite any biasness they may have had, did their job to the best of their abilities. Love it or Hate it, the game is an obvious push of fundamental Christianity, and is a bad game to boot.